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“This is embarrassing to us….” | Presidency, Transparency International React to David Cameron’s “Fantastically Corrupt” Statement
The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has responded to the comment made by British Prime Minister David Cameron in a video published yesterday.
Cameron was talking to the Queen and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby when he said: “Actually we’ve got the leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain. Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.” Click here to watch it
Shehu said in a statement:
This is embarrassing to us, to us say the least, given the good work that the President is doing. The eyes of the world are on what is happening here. The Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria. Things are changing with corruption and everything else.
In a press release by Transparency International yesterday (Tuesday), its Managing Director, Cobus de Swardt, said:
There is no doubt that historically, Nigeria and Afghanistan have had very high levels of corruption, and that continues to this day.
But the leaders of those countries have sent strong signals that they want things to change, and the London Anti-Corruption Summit creates an opportunity for all the countries present to sign up to a new era.
This affects the UK as much as other countries: we should not forget that by providing a safe haven for corrupt assets, the UK and its Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are a big part of the world’s corruption problem.
